Fancy hood ornaments, most notably on Cadillacs and Mercedes Benz automobiles, seat in shallow sockets defined in the hood, and are retained by elastic means that engage the hood ornament and pass through an aperture in the hood and are retained on the underside of the hood. If they are struck by anything, as they inevitably are over the life of the car, rather than break off, because of the resilient mounting they just deflect and snap back upright when the deflecting force abates.
This works well when the ornament is struck. However, this mounting system does not work very well in preventing theft of the hood ornament. Although perhaps a few years ago hood ornament theft was generally unknown, increasingly, whether for reasons of monetary gain, resentment, thrills, or for personal motives, thieves are taking hood ornaments. Such thievery puts the owners not only to the cost of replacing the ornament, but to the nuisance of having to go to the dealership or other source and take the time to secure another ornament and install it.
There have been devices in the past which are installed beneath the hood to sound the horn when the ornament is deflected, thus hopefully thwarting would be thieves. However, typically these are quite involved in their installation and expensive to purchase.
There is a need for a hood ornament theft alarm which is simple to install, economical to manufacture, and nearly foolproof in its functioning so that it cannot easily be circumvented by a would be thief.